Chapter 7: Judgment in the Great Hall, the Storm Settles

The three days set for the inventory of the estate finally came.

The entire Xue family gathered in the ancestral hall. The Old Master sat in the seat of honor, his expression grave. The Second Master and Madam stood to one side, their faces showing panic they could no longer hide.

Yifeng stepped into the middle of the hall, holding the old letters and the true account books, his voice echoing through the ancestral hall. “Honored Grandfather, today your grandson has come not only to reclaim the estate, but to clear the name of a mother who has lain wronged in her grave for eleven years.”

Word by word, piece by piece, the evidence came out: the illegal weapons smuggling, the staged false accusation, the poison at the recent banquet. The whole ancestral hall was deathly silent, with only the wind whistling through the gaps in the doors.

The Old Master held the letters, his hands shaking, his eyes red. “It’s… it’s my fault. Back then I didn’t investigate properly, and I let my daughter-in-law die wronged…”

The Second Master collapsed to the floor, with nothing left to say in his defense. Under family law, the crimes of causing a family member’s death and colluding in smuggling were enough to strip him of all standing, expel him from the Xue family, and hand him over to the magistrate.

When everything had settled, Yifeng stood before his mother’s memorial tablet, lit a stick of incense, and said softly, “Mother, the wrong done to you has been washed clean. From now on, I will carry the Xue family, and I promise never to let the tragedy of those years happen again.”

Beside him, Rouya stood quietly, watching the back of the cousin who had just come through the storm, and thought to herself that the road ahead for the Xue family had perhaps only just begun.

— THE END —